Mistletoe, Wassail and Palm Trees
by Flowerlady
Summary: Post LotF...Written for two separate TF.N challenges. Ben Skywalker X Jysella Horn...Ben and Jysella find themselves sent to a snowy mountainside resort for a very interesting mission.


**Title:** Mistletoe, Wassail and Palm Trees

**Author:** Flowerlady

**Timeframe:** Post LotF

**Genre:** Romance, Mush and Humor

**Characters:** Ben/ Jysella

**Disclaimer:** Not mine…Wish that it was, but, alas, SW belongs to GL.

**Summary:** Ben and Jysella find themselves sent to a snowy mountainside resort for a very interesting mission.

**Author's Note:** This is being written for two separate challenges on TF.n.

**Benella** Holiday Challenge:

In time for the holidays, let's give Ben and Jys a winter vacation. Make it romantic, fun or furious. Your choice, but let's have some fun.  
Requirements:

Write a one-shot that takes Ben and Jys to a winter wonderland.

They must do some sort of winter sport while there.

Words:

palm tree  
hot  
sun  
mistletoe  
Caroling

_and _

**Monday Mush Mania** Holiday Challenge:  
In honor of our upcoming holidays, write a Star Wars holiday story making sure to include the words wassail, sparkle, ribbon and chor-cake.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_**Mistletoe, Wassail and Palm Trees**_

I hated snow, ice, cold—all of it. The only good thing about where we were being sent was that I was going with Jysella Horn.

I took one final look in my duffle and wondered if I'd forgotten anything. Deciding that I had enough warm clothing, I closed the bag and hoisted it over my shoulder. At the door of my bedroom, I took one more wistful look at my safe haven before turning off the light.

Dad was sitting at the table reading a datapad when I made my way to the food prep area of our Temple apartment. After the events of the past few years and after the Jedi moved back to Coruscant, we decided to move into the Temple. Dad relinquished the lease on his and Mom's old apartment and found it much more convenient and, I think, soothing for him to live here.

As I was in the preserver pulling out the container of blue milk, he looked up from his reading and asked, "All ready to go?"

Glancing at the bottle, I decided that there wasn't enough in it for more than one person; so, with a mental shrug, I drink from the container. After wiping at my blue mustache with the back of my hand, I sat down at the table across from Dad. "Yeah. I guess. Wish that I knew a little more about this mysterious mission, though."

Completely ignoring my not so subtle inquiry, he said instead, "I thought you'd be thrilled to be going anywhere on a mission with Knight Horn."

I blushed despite my best effort not to at his teasing tone. He was the only one that knew I was head over heels for the daughter of Master Corran Horn and Mom's old friend Mirax Terrik Horn. I also realized that I could never lie to my father, not to mention, the Jedi Grand Master. Suddenly finding the tabletop very interesting, I mumbled, "I am thrilled to be going with Jys, but you know that I hate surprises and the cold."

I never told him why I hated the cold, but I knew that he figured out why a long time ago. It reminded me of one of the darkest times of my life—being stranded on Zoist when I was fourteen. That was almost eight years ago and I still had nightmares of what could have happened if I'd given into the voices and killed that little girl.

As if sensing my thoughts, Dad smiled and said, "Well, despite any time you may have been in a cold climate, Commenor is hardly harsh, besides Macci has a fairly big Fete Holiday celebration going on right now. Maybe you will see that snow and ice can be fun."

_Missions aren't supposed to be fun, are they?_ I looked at him skeptically, suddenly wondering what he had up his sleeve. "Perhaps. But I'd rather be going to some deserted beach, where there's plenty of **sun** and an occasional **palm tree**."

Dad snickered, "And a certain black-haired, green-eyed beauty would be dressed in a swimsuit rather than a thermo-suit."

I turned as red as my hair. I know that I did. Dad laughed and I stood. "I have to go. Jys is waiting." His laughter continued to taunt me as the door to our apartment slid closed. Sometimes I hated that he knew me so well.

---

Our transport docked and we disembarked. After a few hours long overland trip in an air speeder, we found ourselves in a small town in the mountains on the northern hemisphere of Commenor. Macci was a quaint little place that had long ago made an economy out of its elevation, closeness to the northern polar ice cap, and perpetual Fete Holiday atmosphere. Ski resorts and woodland cabins had long ago became commonplace. It was here that we were to meet the mysterious person from whom we were to receive our mission particulars.

"Do you have any idea what we are here to do," Jysella Horn asked as we exited the air speeder along with a few vacationing couples. It wasn't the first time she had asked the same question. She just couldn't get that I didn't know anymore than she did.

"Jys, for the last time, I don't know a thing. I may live with the Grand Master, Luke Skywalker, I may even be his son and former Apprentice, but I cannot read his mind."

"Well, this is just too vapin' weird to not have a scheme attached to it," she said as she looked around at the cozy looking village.

I, too, looked the place over and came to the same conclusion. "Yeah, you're right. Hey, there's the cantina we're to meet our mystery contact. Let's go and get to the bottom of this."

I didn't wait for the woman of my dreams to keep up with me. I was off, dodging slick icy spots in the roadbed and the speeders zipping by, as I bounded across the street. It only took Jysella a moment to catch up. We entered the cantina and were greeted by the scent of cinnamon, nutmeg and **chor-cake** in addition to the usual bar smells of smoke, ale, whisky and lum.

As our eyes adjusted quickly to the dimmer light, we both reached out into the Force to detect anything that would give us a clue, or present us with danger. Jys recognized the familiar presence a heartbeat before I did. We looked at each other, and I could have read her mind in that moment, because I was thinking the same thing:

_What the kriff is Syal doing here?_

She came toward us with a huge smile on her face. Syal Antilles Horn was Jysella's sister-in-law and was about to make her an aunt as well. Syal married Valin four years ago. She had worked since the final few months of the war with the Jedi and with her dad, Wedge Antilles. Valin eventually was the one to provide the shoulder for her to cry on when the grief of losing her fiancé and of being wanted for treason came crashing down on her. And despite the almost familial closeness of the Horn and Antilles clans, they fell in love and married.

"Syal, what are you doing here?" Jys demanded as soon as the older woman was close enough.

The blond only smiled and raised an eyebrow. "I'm glad to see you too, Jys. Hi, Ben."

I looked at her and couldn't help the feeling of pending doom that came over me. "Hi, Syal. I didn't realize that you would be involved with anything going on here."

She laughed and laid her hand over the obvious curve of her belly. She was only a few months away of giving the Horns and Antilles their second grandchild. "I think you both should come and join me."

Jys looked around the room suspiciously, finally locking her jade eyes with my blue. Then she said to her brother's wife. "Okay."

After a few moments of listening to Syal, Jys and I sat there over cooling cups of **wassail** totally dumbfounded. Whatever Jys and I may have conjured in our heads as to what our mission may have entailed, _this _definitely wasn't it.

Our parents, in their wonderful wisdom of being older, thought that we needed a vacation—together.

Syal gave us keycards to a two bedroom cabin further up in the mountains and tickets to the local theater for a showing of some Fete musical. We also had several diner reservations at a fine resort restaurant, besides a sizable account of funds attached to the creditchips she handed us. And we were stuck here for two standard weeks. _Together._ I didn't know whether to be happy about the situation or to dread it.

Jys and I couldn't look at each other while Syal spoke, I was too embarrassed that this was happening and I didn't want to know what Jys could be thinking. I had fallen in love with Jysella about two years ago, up until that time I really hadn't ever thought that much about girls. I once had a crush on Seha Dorvald and we had dated for a while after I turned eighteen, but she never gave me much of a chance. She considered me too young for her. Then Jys and I were paired on a mission together right after I was Knighted and my heart was lost. We became friends, but I didn't have the foggiest idea if she felt more for me than friendship. I never told her of my feelings either. I didn't want to mess up our relationship if my love was only one-sided. She was, after all, the same age as Seha; so she too might consider me too young for her.

Although, I had known Jys my whole life, we weren't close before that mission. She was three and a half years older than me and spent a lot of time on Corellia before the war, and during it, out on the Outer Rim. While at the same time, I was dealing with my own life crises—almost becoming a Dark Nest Joiner, my often morally conflicting GAG duties, my mother being murdered, being betrayed and tortured by my cousin, almost falling to the Dark Side, pulling my Dad from the brink of despair, proving Jacen killed my mom, discovering my former Master was a Sith and had wanted me as his Apprentice—Oh, not to mention, dealing with the typical adolescent stuff at the same time.

It was no wonder I was almost twenty-two and had only ever kissed one girl.

Still dazed, we said our farewells to Syal and sat in the cantina for a long time drinking the spicy punch of the local area without saying a word to each other. _How could Dad betray me like this?_

Suddenly, Jys broke out in a fit of giggles. I didn't know what to make of her reaction; I, myself, felt like crawling into a hole.

"What's so funny?" I finally asked after I couldn't take it any longer.

She shook her head and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. _Force, she's laughing so hard that she's crying! Is spending two weeks with me such an amusing idea to her?_

"Oh…Ben…" she said through gasps, "Can you believe this? Our parents and my brother's wife set us up!"

Annoyed, I snapped, "Yeah, and spending the holiday with me is such an unthinkable idea."

She stopped laughing and met my eyes. "Ben? You don't get it, do you?" I glared at her and she quickly explained. "Syal and I were talking once about what would be our dream vacations. She told me hers and I told her that my dream vacation was to be stranded in place like this with someone special."

Still not having a clue in typical male fashion, I said, "So? Why would I be dragged along if this is _your_ dream vacation? I hate the cold, everyone knows that."

She suddenly dropped her gaze to the empty mug before her and said so softly that I wasn't sure if I heard her correctly, "Because you are the person I wanted to be stranded with."

Then she raised her eyes and, I swear, Jacen's Sith lightning couldn't have zapped me as profoundly as those green eyes did in that moment.

"Jys?" _Did she want to spend the two weeks with me? Could she—_ I couldn't even bring myself to think it. Suddenly, everything became very surreal to me.

She smiled and reached out to take my hand. Standing, she said, "Let's go check out that cabin in the woods. Then maybe we can go out for dinner and talk."

All that I could do was nod as she held my hand and led me from the cantina. And wait for the dream to turn nasty; it was about time that it would. My sweetest dreams of Jys usually did. You know, this would be where the cantina was ransacked by a herd of hungry rancors.

Instead, I found myself in the back seat of an open air speeder, nestled beneath a thermo-blanket with Jys beside me still holding my hand, and heading up the mountainside toward a cabin in the woods.

_Surely, those rancors are waiting there._

---

The cabin was nice and there wasn't a rancor in sight. Made of primitive hardwood logs with a large native greystone fireplace in the center of it, the space was warm, cozy and—dare I say it—romantic. The place was decorated for the Fete Holiday in greens and berry sprigs tied together with red **ribbon** and twinkle lights woven within, the furniture looked inviting and comfortable. Above the massive fireplace was a loft that contained two small, but pleasant, bedrooms and a shared refresher. A kitchen and a small dining area were situated behind the fireplace.

Jys turned to me and smiled. I couldn't help it, after what she had admitted in the cantina and my finally believing this wasn't a dream, I grinned from ear to ear. "This place is fantastic!" she declared.

"It sure is." I set our bags on the couch and moved to go under the support beam separating the living room and the dining area. I needed to see if the place was stocked with food. If it was, then it was truly perfect.

Jys caught my hand and I stopped to turn toward her. Suddenly, I found her pressing her lips to mine in a kiss that could have sent me to the moon, if she hadn't surprised me so badly. Before my mind could catch up, she backed away.

"Sorry." She must have misinterpreted my shock as not wanting. She pointed up to the beam above my head. There, hanging from it, was a green ball of leaves and small white berries. I looked from it to her puzzled. She said, "It's **mistletoe**. Tradition has it that, if a person is caught under it, the person doing the catching has to kiss the one being caught." She then blushed a beautiful shade of rose and smiled shyly, as she added, "You do it for good luck."

I glanced back up at it and slowly nodded. Looking back at her and grinning, I responded, "Okay. I can always use good luck. After all, I _am_ a Skywalker." She grinned and I thought about pulling her in for a real kiss, but before I had my chance, she moved away. _So much for that good luck._ Resigned, I took a step over the threshold into the dining room, thinking that the mistletoe still could come in very handy over the next two weeks.

After checking out the kitchen and, to my delight, finding it stocked to overflowing, we went to our bedrooms above in the loft to change into something more suitable for a fancy restaurant than our Jedi robes. We called for a taxi to take us to the resort at the top of the mountain for diner. Again, the taxi was an open-aired vehicle. I pulled my coat tighter around me and covered us with the blanket as I shivered.

Jys looked at me and I said, "I don't understand this. Why in the galaxy would all the taxis in this Force forsaken ice box be open to the air?"

She frowned and turned away. She gazed into the dusky shadows of early evening, and I instantly felt her shields pull tightly around her. I wondered at what I could have done now to offend her.

"It's supposed to be romantic," she snapped after a few moments of the silent treatment. "In the olden days sleighs drawn by animals. I kind of like it. The scenery is so beautiful."

I really tried to see how freezing ones behind off and sustaining frostbite to ones face could be romantic, but I just didn't get it. However, I decided to keep that thought to myself. This was her dream vacation, even if it wasn't mine; obviously, she could find some romance in it. Maybe she could be convinced to find it in me too.

I was beginning to think that I ruined the evening, when she turned to me and smiled. She moved closer to me and leaned against my shoulder. Out of instinct, I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. She snuggled closer and sighed.

"You really hate all of this, don't you?"

"Not the holiday stuff, I guess. I like the lights and the decorations. It's the cold and snow that I don't care for." She turned her face to look up at me and I felt my heart skip a beat. _Okay, maybe this is just a little bit romantic._

"But why?" Jys could be persistent when she wanted to be.

I took a deep breath and let it out very slowly. I looked away and said, "It reminds me of my time on Zoist."

She shifted a bit in my embrace so that she could see my face better. "You never talked about that."

I looked down at her and shook my head, saying, "And I'm not going to talk about it now. Let's just say that it was one of the worst times of my life and leave it there."

After studying me for a few moments, she raised her hand and rested it against my cheek. Her hand was so soft and warm that it made me shudder, but this time not with cold, instead with something completely different. Her voice was as gentle as her touch when she said, "I hope that someday you will tell me what happened to you, Ben."

As I tried to quail my suddenly racing heart, I replied just as quietly, "Hopefully, I can."  
Staring down into her eyes and being drowned there, I decided to push my luck and kiss her. As I was leaning in to do just that, the speeder stopped and the driver said, "Your destination, Sir, Madam. Please deposit a creditchip into the slot for payment to be deducted from your account. Have a good evening."

She suddenly moved out of my arms and reached into the small handbag she was carrying in order to retrieve the creditchip Syal had given to her to pay the droid. I knew the moment was lost, but I didn't give up, we still had the drive back to the cabin.

---

The resort was decorated as the rest of the village below for the Fete Holiday. Evergreen trees were covered with twinkling lights and wreaths and garlands of the same evergreens adorned the log and native stone building of the resort. It was truly beautiful against the stark whiteness of the snow. I took Jysella's hand and smiled down at her as we made our way up the snowy walk to the entrance.

Dinner turned out to be not really what we had envisioned either. Oh, the food was superb, some of the best we'd ever eaten, but the restaurant turned out to be as rustic looking as our cabin was. The dining room was spread out before a massive stone wood burning fireplace and the walls were decorated with primitive artifacts of a much simpler time in Commenor's history. It was quaint like the rest of the village and I really enjoyed it.

But I enjoyed the company far more. Jys and I talked for a long time. She told me things that I know she probably hadn't told anyone before. I still held back some of my most darkest secrets, but I found that I could open up to her too. Finally, the serving droid approached our candle-lit table to remove our ryshcate dessert dishes.

"May I get you anything else?" the droid asked in a pleasant voice.

I looked at Jys, and when she smiled, I realized that she didn't want the evening to end anymore than I did. "Yes, could we have a refill on our **hot **chocolates, please?"

"I will be right back, Sir."

We immediately went back to talking and I fell deeper in love with her with every word she spoke.

We eventually went back to our cabin and exhaustion finally took over. However before we climbed the stairs to our bedroom, I discovered Jys standing in the entryway into the dining room, directly under the mistletoe. She was looking into the smaller room as if she was thinking of something. I came up beside her and turned her toward me. She smiled and I looked up. She followed my eyes to the ball of greens hanging on the beam. When she met my gaze, I leaned down and captured her lips with mine.

The kiss was as mind-blowing as I expected it to be. Her lips were soft and warm, her mouth receptive when I deepened it, and when she wrapped her arms around my neck to pull me even closer, I was in heaven. But, alas, all good things eventually end and so did our kiss, leaving us both breathless.

We gazed at each other for a long time, until Jys broke the spell by saying, "I think we should go to sleep now. I was hoping that we could go ice skating tomorrow."

Suddenly, I felt like I was being sucked out an airlock. "Ice skating? I don't know the first thing about skating."

She moved away from me but took my hand. Smiling, she said, "Then I will have to teach you, Skywalker."

I was suddenly concerned by the mischievous gleam in her eyes as she spoke my last name. Every time she did that, it never ended well for me.

---

The next morning I awoke to the smell of something wonderful in the air—breakfast. I dressed warmly, remembering Jysella's desire to go ice skating, and then made my way down to the kitchen. She looked up from the food preparer and grinned.

"I figured I could wake you up with food. I sometimes think that's all that you think about."

Leaning against the counter, I watched as she moved. I wondered if she realized just how beautiful she was or the affect she had over me. Smiling at that thought, I answered, "No, I think of other things as well, but you're right, food is pretty important."

As she moved past me with two heaping plates of eggs, pancakes and sausage, she stopped before me and leaned up to tenderly kiss me on the lips. It was the first time she ever was so intimate and I took it as a good sign. Especially, when I realized that I wasn't standing anywhere near the mistletoe.

We finished breakfast and, after cleaning up, we made our way to the top of the mountain again to the resort. The air was brisk and I was glad for the think thermo-suit I was wearing. We rented skates and bought rink passes for the afternoon. Jys wanted to purchase them for the entire time that we were to there, but I objected. We didn't know if I'd even like skiing, which I had my doubts that I would.

The ice rink was designed to look like a natural frozen pond. It was an irregular oval shape with the seemingly ever present evergreen trees lining the far side. This side, however, sported a concession stand that sold snacks, warmed wassail and hot chocolate. Suddenly, I wondered if the spicy punch was spiked, I really could have used a drink at that moment.

Jys must have picked up on my reservations, because she squeezed my hand and smiled. "Don't worry. I'll be here to help you. I won't let you make too big a fool out of yourself."

"Oh, geez, thanks," I dryly countered and she chuckled lightly. In bewilderment, I looked out past the warming benches to the oval of glossy ice, hoping to see what I was facing. At least fifty other beings were gliding swiftly over the surface. I glance back at Jys and added, "You had better help me a lot, because I don't think I can do this."

She pulled me toward the warming benches and grinned as she teased, "Oh, come on. For the love of the Force, you faced a Sith Lord, but you're afraid of a tiny bit of ice?"

I dumbly nodded, acknowledging my embarrassment. "Yep. And I'll admit it."

After replacing our boots with the rented skates, Jys gracefully stood from the bench and turned toward me. I was still trying to figure out how I was ever going to stay upright with only the thin blade under each of my feet.

She held out her hands and simply commanded, "Stand and take my hands. Walking is lesson number one."

I look up from staring at my skates and, after sucking in a deep breath, I take the proffered hands. There was no turning back now.

Amazingly, I found standing not to be as hard as I had imagined and, once I stopped fighting for balance and let it come naturally, neither was walking. Jys held my hand and encouraged me to the edge of the ice. There she helped me onto the ice by holding both of my hands as she effortlessly backed onto it and started to glide. My right blade touched the ice, and I worked it back and forth in a cutting motion a few times, experimenting on the slickness of the glassy surface.

"You have to be kidding," I mumbled as I took a deep breath and picked my left blade off the solid non-slippery plane of the safety of the side area. "Facing Darth Caedus was never this hard."

Jys shook her head and smirked. But her words were encouraging and held not a trace of the amusement she had to be feeling at seeing a fully trained Jedi Knight so out of his element. "That's good. Don't fight for control, let it come naturally." She then moved back and I had no other option, but to let myself be pulled forward with her.

"Emmm…I only want to know one thing," I asked as we glided further into the midst of other skaters, who thankfully gave us a wide berth.

"What's that?"

_How can you make this look so damned easy?_

"How in the galaxy do I stop if I want to, besides the obvious ways of falling on my face or backside, of course?"

She laughed and said, "I will show you." We stopped moving, but I was concentrating so hard on my own feet that I never watched to see what she did with hers.

"Wait! I didn't see that."

She only smiled that patient smile of hers and shook her head. "No, that wasn't want I meant. Do you think you can stand here without my help for a moment?"

I felt panic seize me. "You aren't serious, are you?"

"Oh, Ben, don't worry. You won't fall. Just stand here like you did over there, and don't think about being on the ice. I will demonstrate just how easy skating can be, if you really give it a chance."

There was something in her tone of voice that cued me. I'm not even sure what it was, but something profound was lurking there in the realm of the unsaid. She wanted to do this with me, and she really wished that I wanted to do it with her as well. This was, after all, her dream vacation, and by some stroke of luck she wanted me to share her entire fantasy with her. _What man in his right mind could refuse that?_

Not that I'm in my right mind, but she is the woman who makes up most of my fantasies. Maybe if I play in hers, she'll want to play in mine.

With that encouraging revelation playing in my mind, I smiled with a confidence that I didn't truly feel, and slowly let go of my death hold on her slender hands. I was willing to try or do anything for her, I realized. I loved her that much.

Two hours and one bruised behind later, I discovered that ice skating was indeed fun, once I got the hang of it, and figured out that, unlike everyone else, I could use the Force to help keep me upright.

After leaving the ice, we decided to warm ourselves with a mug of the local concoction, wassail, which was a spicy fruity punch that was usually drunk warmed. I enjoyed the flavor and with it we decided to try a bowl of steamed chocolate pudding. We talked and laughed about my insecurity at the start of our rink time, which I admitted was completely irrational. However besides the comedy that she found in my fear at the beginning, she never failed to praise my achievement of giving ice skating a real shot and, consequently, discovering the pleasure in it.

Jysella never failed to make me feel good about myself. I hoped that my comments about her gracefulness on the ice and her wonderful instructing did as much for her.

---

The two weeks seemed to fly by. We never lacked for something to do. We went skating at least four other times, each time I became better and better, until I didn't have to touch the Force at all to keep me upright. We'd go into the village and shop at the small boutiques and eat in the cantina where we had met Syal that first day. We used the tickets to the musical and enjoyed a lighthearted holiday story. We went to dinner almost every night, but when it snowed we stayed back at the cabin and Jys and I cooked our own meals together. She even talked me into going skiing with her. A sport, I discovered, I absolutely loved. Sometimes, we wouldn't seek out anything to do, but would go for long walks in the surrounding evergreen woodland or spend the evening sitting before our fireplace wrapped in each other's arms on the couch. Sometimes we would talk during these times, and other times we would just walk or sit quietly.

It was during one of these quiet evenings, where the only light came from the twinkle lights and the wood fire, that I finally bared my entire soul to Jys. No, I didn't tell her that I loved her yet, but I did tell her of what all happened to me during the time that I was Jacen Solo's Apprentice. We cried and held onto each other as I finally let the guilt that I had carried for nearly ten years to be lifted away. I never felt so liberated, and it was then that I realized that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.

I was about to tell her just that when we suddenly heard singing from outside our cabin. Tonight was Fete Night, a celebration of light on the darkest, coldest night of the year. Today was, not only the winter solstice, but also the last day of the Commeroni year. I stood from Jysella's comforting embrace and led her by the hand to the front door of our warm haven.

Outside was a group of locals and vacationers standing at the end of our walkway, **caroling**. They were all bundled in their warmest coats against the frigid night air and the falling snow, and all carried the traditional lanterns to light their way. I wrapped my arm around Jysella's shoulders and she held me around my waist while we listened to the Fete carolers. They were singing songs of the season, of love, joy and hope for the light that the new year would bring. It was really hard to imagine anything more perfect, and it was hard not to join in with them, even if we didn't know all the words to the songs.

After the group finished serenading us, the leader asked us to join them in their celebrating. I let the decision be Jysella's and, to my delighted surprise, she declined the offer. The carolers wished us good luck for the coming year and then moved on, heading up the mountain to the next cabin.

I closed the hinged door, while Jys went into the kitchen. I added another log to the wood fire and watched the flames greedily lick at it. I was standing when she returned with two steaming mugs of wassail. She stopped under the beam between the two rooms. I could tell that she was purposely standing under the mistletoe.

"We should toast the day," she said as she grinned at me and handed me one of the mugs.

"Yes, we should. It is a celebration of the new year and of new beginnings." I tapped my mug against hers and we both drank the spicy beverage. Then I took her cup from her and sat them on the mantel of the fireplace. Jys never moved from her spot below the mistletoe. I took her into my arms and kissed her, steeling her breath away as she stole mine.

"Oh, Ben…" she breathed as the kiss came apart.

She smiled up at me and I saw a **sparkle** in her eyes that I knew was love. Then I realized that I had been seeing that same twinkle for the past two years. _Has she loved me as long as I have loved her? _"Jysella, I love you so much, I have for a long time," I whispered as I held her close.

She beamed and ran her fingers through my hair; I've always loved when she's done that. "I know," she quietly responded, and then added before capturing my lips in another blissful kiss, "I love you too."

Before I let my mind catch up with my heart, I cupped her face and said, "Jys, please spend the night with me."

She gave me a mischievous look and countered, "Only the night?"

I shook my head and kissed her lips tenderly. "Actually, I was wondering if you'd want to spend the rest of you life with me."

I had never seen Jysella look as happy as she did in that moment. She pulled me even closer and said, "I wouldn't have it any other way." She kissed me again, setting me on fire.

I took her hand and led her toward the stairs. Outside my bedroom door we kissed again, more passionately than ever before, as we began to pull on each other's sweaters. After breaking the kiss, she pulled my sweater over my head, exposing my chest and shoulders to her smoldering touch. She her eyes were blazing as she said, "I think our next vacation should be about your dream. You know, the one on the beach with sand, sun and palm trees. The Silver Sea and Hanna City are always nice. I'm sure the Darklighters would let us have the run of their beach house for a few weeks if we ask."

"Possibly, for a honeymoon?"

"Are you proposing, Skywalker?"

"Maybe," I grinned as I pulled her sweater off over her head. I took a deep, gasping breath when my eyes fell upon her. She was so beautiful. "If I was, what would your answer be?"

She pretended to think. "Well, since this is my fantasy vacation…and this is how the fantasy always ends; of course, I'll have to say—yes."

I froze for a moment. I stared at her with my mouth open. _Did I just ask Jysella Horn to marry me, and she did she just say yes?_ "Jys…" I swallowed and tried hard to clear the fog of my desire and shock from my feeble brain.

She kissed me on the cheek. Grinning, she took me by the hand and led me into the room. As I closed the door be hind us, she said in a sultry voice that made me melt even further, "Now, let me in on some of your fantasies that don't involve palm trees and I'll let you in on some of mine that are way too hot for snow and ice."

Fin 

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